History BadassBookworm / LiveActionFilms

* WillSmith's character in ''Film/IAmLegend''. A brilliant research scientist who also kicks zombie ass. Handwaved by the fact he's also [[ColonelBadass an Army Lieutenant Colonel]].

** On the subject of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, Loki is a villainous example. He's often overshadowed by [[DumbMuscle Thor's]] combat prowess, but he is a very formidable warrior in his own right, able to take down multiple assailants in seconds with only a dagger.

* Max, the [[EvilGenius villainous]] {{sidekick}} in Creator/JohnWoo's ''Film/{{Broken Arrow|1996}}'', does very well against the ActionGirl before he [[BadassBoast explains his badassness]] and attempts a PreAssKickingOneLiner while {{dra|maticGunCock}}wing a [[JustShootHim gun]], sealing his fate.

* Heavily implied with Roxy from ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService''. She is [[BrainyBrunette very smart]] and was able to survive from drowning by understanding that [[ItMakesSenseInContext putting shower heads in the toilets]] would make breathing easier.

* Max, the [[EvilGenius villainous]] {{sidekick}} in JohnWoo's ''[[Film/BrokenArrow1996 Broken Arrow]]'', does very well against the ActionGirl before he [[BadassBoast explains his badassness]] and attempts a PreAssKickingOneLiner while {{dra|maticGunCock}}wing a [[JustShootHim gun]], sealing his fate.

* Max, the [[EvilGenius villainous]] {{sidekick}} in JohnWoo's ''[[Film/BrokenArrow1996 Broken Arrow]]'', does very well against the ActionGirl before he [[BadassBoast explains his]] {{badass}}ness and attempts a PreAssKickingOneLiner while {{dra|maticGunCock}}wing a [[JustShootHim gun]], sealing his fate.

* ''Film/XMen'':

* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' - They're a bunch of disgraced professors [[TokenMinority (and one blue-collar joe)]] sending demons, malicious ghosts, evil sorcerers, and other supernatural baddies packing on a regular basis!
** Winston Zeddemore does ascend to this in the 2009 video game, though, where he's mentioned to have gotten his degree.
* Captain Nemo is exactly this in ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''.

** On the subject of the MarvelCinematicUniverse, Loki is a villainous example. He's often overshadowed by [[DumbMuscle Thor's]] combat prowess, but he is a very formidable warrior in his own right, able to take down multiple assailants in seconds with only a dagger.

** Charles Xavier is an Oxford graduate as shown in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', with a doctorate in genetics.
** Hank [=McCoy=] earned his [=PhD=] (presumably in engineering and a biology-related field) from Harvard at the age of 15, as established in ''Film/XMenFirstClass''.

** Likewise, though not to the same extent, [[Film/TheLastCrusade his father]]. The lesser display of badassery seems to be his father's gentler nature and distaste for violence, although he manages to bring down a fighter plane with nothing more than his umbrella and some conveniently located birds.

* Lt. Ring becomes one in the HeartbreakRidge.

* Jijii from ''IchiTheKiller''. A little old [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]], Jijii, manipulates the underworld from the shadows until he's confronted by a Yakuza enforcer, forcing him to [[spoiler: whip off his clothes to reveal his impossibly muscular frame, then break every bone in an enforcer's body]].

* [[MadScientist Doc Brown]] in ''Film/BackToTheFuture 3'' [[BigDamnHeroes comes to Marty's rescue]] with what looks to be an improvised SniperRifle and claims to be able to "shoot a flea off a dog's back at 500 yards." Knowing him, ''it probably can''.

** Ditto (naturally) for Professor Moriarty in ''[[Film/SherlockHolmes Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows]]''; he was a boxing champion at Oxford and more than a match for Holmes. He would have won if he hadn't discounted the possibility that Holmes was willing to sacrifice himself to stop him.

* Ram from ''Film/{{Tron}}'' crosses this with BadassNormal and BadassUnintentional. He wasn't designed as a fighter - he was actuarial software for an insurance company. Still, he'd been able to hold his own on the Game Grid against Sark's warriors for nearly the equivilent of a ''year.'' He's also [[spoiler: the only one who figures out what Flynn is without being told.]]

* Robert Redford's character Joe Turner in ''ThreeDaysOfTheCondor'', about a CIA employed bookworm who accidentally uncovers the usual Sinister Plot and spends the rest of the film using everything he's learned from his books to evade capture/death/assorted bad things.

* In ''BrotherhoodOfTheWolf'', Grégoire de Fronsac is an 18th century French royal taxidermist, scientist, and soldier. His role in the film is half forensic detective and half ass-kicker. After [[spoiler:the torture and murder of his friend]], the mellow, charming scientist transforms into a [[DualWielding double-sword wielding]], war-painted killing machine on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* In ''CrimsonTide'', Denzel Washington plays an academy-trained bookworm who Gene Hackman's seasoned submarine commander deems 'not hard enough'. Denzel proceeds to launch a mutiny, weather a counter-mutiny, and launch his own ''counter-counter-mutiny'', all while battling a Russian sub and trying to avert nuclear holocaust.

** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'':\\\
Xavier.\\\
Hank [=McCoy=]

* Jor-El from ManOfSteel. Krypton's chief scientist. Rides a dinosaur through a starship warzone. Goes toe-to-toe with a general bred since birth to fight. And sent Superman to earth a couple of days ''''before'''' Krypton exploded.

* Xavier and Hank in ''Film/XMenFirstClass''.